.......and now it blooms. A reflection.

In recent years I have taken a peculiar interest in nurturing half dead plants back to life.

You know the ones, the scrawny, sad and wilting offerings always found on the bottom shelves of garden nurseries with a bright orange clearance price slapped on them. I will usually pick the most pathetic of the bunch. The one that looks as though it has no chance at renewal whatsoever.
In six weeks time, after a treatment of good, rich soil, timely doses of nourishment by way of plant food, perfect sunlight and daily rituals of classical music----all of their vibrancy returns. Leaves and stems bursting green and reaching tall towards the sun.

A sumptuous or wispy flowering bloom is the ultimate triumph!

It seems obvious that anything in life, especially people---require fertile ground in order to bloom.



C.J. Ellis






*Addendum --

A Christmas or so ago, my ex husband brought with him a near dead  hydrangea plant. It was a gift from another family member and it had been shipped from some far away place. Having endured several miles in a shipping box---it was more than worse for wear upon arrival. I asked that he leave it with me and I would do the best I could--as usual, I was hopeful. 
I placed it on top of my counter in front of two large windows in my kitchen where it received almost daily direct sunlight give or take a rainy day or two or three. After a few weeks......nothing much had changed within its browned stems. I gave it a Bach and Pachelbel treatment now and again in the dining room...still no change. 
Then, one day, in a bout of frantic house cleaning....I played hours of Vivaldi's Four Seasons. Scrubbing floors and woodwork suffocated the air with the noxious scent of cleaning agents so I was forced to open several windows to the Winter air.

The next morning, after almost forgetting about the little hydrangea on the counter top, I glanced over at it and saw a peek of gorgeous, bright green leaf  making it's way out of the brown stem.

Perhaps it was  Vivaldi or the whip of cold Winter atmosphere that surrounded it for a time. Maybe it was both. In the days that followed it gave another few brilliant glimpses of lovely leaf.

But that would be all and in the end there was nothing more I could do. Nonetheless, it gave me a great deal of happiness to send my dear ex-husband ( and dear friend)......the hopeful peek of possible redemption  when I sent along this somewhat lyrical photograph.

Even if for a little while.